Confirmed: Nqakula appointed as Mozambique envoy

President Jacob Zuma’s political adviser, Charles Nqakula, has been appointed as the high commissioner-designate to Mozambique, the presidency has said.

“The presidency congratulates Mr Nqakula in his new responsibilities. He will assume his new duties on 1 June 2012,” it said in a statement today, confirming a City Press report on Sunday.

Nqakula, who had held office as the minister of defence as well as the minister of safety and security, previously led a “facilitation team” to Zimbabwe and was Zuma’s special envoy to Sudan.

In 2005, he replaced Zuma (who was deputy president at the time) as a mediator in the Burundi peace talks.

In 2006, Nqakula outraged opposition MPs in Parliament when he said that South Africans who complained about the country’s crime rate should “stop whining and leave the country”.

He is married to Correctional Services Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula.

City Press also reported on Sunday that former Limpopo premier Sello Moloto was to be moved from Maputo to Finland.

It is understood he was thought to be too inexperienced for a country with which South Africa wants to have much closer relations.

“It’s not that he was not doing well, we just realised a first-time ambassador needs to be eased into the system, and Finland is an easy posting. Mozambique is very important to us, given all it has to offer, so we need someone strong there,” a diplomatic source told City Press.

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